The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1887-12-01
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
The Weekly Discourse Of the Great
Brooklyn Preacher
SubHcct: ''The Gospel of
HEALTH"


proverbs, vii, %.
There is fashion In sermonics. A com.
paratively small part of the Bible is called on
Tor texts Most of the passages of Scripture,
when announced at the opening OF sermons,
Immediately divide themselves into old dis
cussions that We have heard from boyhood,
and the effect on us is soporific. The auditor
guesses at the start just what the preacher
will say. There are very important chapters
ana verses that have never been preached
from, Much of my lifetime am devoting
to unlocking these gold chests and blasting
open these quarries, We talk about the
heart, and sing about tho heart, but il YOU
refer to the physical organ that we call the
heart, II has not half SO much to do with
spiritual health or disease, moral exaltation
o. spiritual depression, as the organ to the
consideration OF which Solomon calls us in
the text. when he describes sin progressing
It'll dart strike through his livern
Solomon's anatomical and physiological
discoveries were so very great that he was
nearly 5000 years ahead of the scientists of
his day. He, more than 1000 years before
Christ seemed to know about the circulation
of the blood, which Harvey discovered l,619
years after Christ, for when Solomon in
Ecclesiastes describing the human body,
speaks Of the pitcher at the fountain, he evil
IDENTIFY means the three canals leading from
tho heart that receive the blood like pitchers
When he speaks in Ecclssiastes Of the silver
cord OF life, he evidently means the spinal
marrow, about which in our day Drs. Mayo
and Carpenter, and Dalton, and Flint, and
Brown-Seluard have experimental. And
Solomon recorded in the Bible thousands of
years before scientists discovered it, that in
his time the spinal cord relaxed in old age,
Toducing the tremors of hand and head;
Or i the silver cord be loosed."
In the text he reveals the fact that he had
studied that largest gland of the human sys-
EN-, the liver, not by the electric light of the
modern dissecting room, but by the dim light
of comparatively dark age, and yet had
seen its important function in the God built
castle OF the human body, its selecting and
iecreting power, its curious cells, its elon-
gated, branching tubes, a divine workman
mp IN central, and right, and left lobe, and
he hepatic artery through which God con-
iucts the crimson tides. Oh, this vital organ
$ IKE the eye OF God in that it never sleeps.
solomon knew of it and had noticed either
IN vivisection or post norton what awful at
lacks sin and dissipation make upon it, until
with the fat of Almighty God it bids the
body and soul separate, and the one it COM
mands to the grave and the other it sends to
Judgment-a lavelin of retribution, not
CHANGING off or making a slight wound, but
piercing it from side to side It'll the dart
strike through the livern Galen and Hippo
crates ascribe to the liver the most of the
worlds, moral depression and the word
melancholy means black bile.
preach to you this morning the gospel of
health. In taking diagnosis of the diseases
OF the soul You must also take the diagnoses
OF the diseases of the body. AS if to recog-
nize this, one whole book of the New Testa-
ment was written by physician. Luke was
doctor, and he discources much of physical
effects, and he tells OF the good Samaritans
medication of the wounds by pouring in oil
and wine, and recognizes hunger as a him
urance to hearing the Gospel, so that the
900 were fed; and records the spare diet of
the prodigal away from home, and the extin-
guished eyeslght of the beggar by the way
SIDE, and let's us know Of the hemorrhage of
the wounds of the dying Christ and the
miraculous post-mortem resuscitation And
any estimate of the spiritual condition that
does NOS include also an estimate of the
physical condition is incomplete
FIRST, let Christian people avoid the mis-
take that they are all wrong with God be-
cause they suffer from depression of spirits.
Many consccrated man has found his spir-
ituai SKY befogged, and his hope and heaven
plotted out, and himself plunged chin deep in
the Slough of Dcspond, and hiss said: my
heart is not right with God, land think must
maze made mistake, and instead OF being a
child OF light l am q child of darkness. No
one can feel as gloomy as feel and be a
Christian" And he has gone to his minister
Tor consolation, and he has collected Flavels
books, and Cecil's books, and Baxter's books,
and read and read and read, and prayed and
prayed and prayed, and wept and wept and
wept, and groaned and groaned and groaned
MY brother, your trouble is not with
the heart; it is gastric disorder or re-
belllon of the liver. You need a physi-
clan more than you do a clergyman. It is
not sin that blots out your hope of heaven
but bile. 1t not only yellows your eyeball,
and furs your tongue, and makes your head
and forebodings. The devil is after you. He
has failed to despoil your character, and he
does the next best thing for him-he ruff1es
your peace of mind. When he says that you
are not a forgiven soul, when he says that
you are not right with God, when he says
that you will never get to heaven, he lies
You are justas sure OF heaven as though you
were there already. But Satan, finding that
he cannot keep you out of the promised land
of Canaan, has determined that the spies
shall not bring you any of the Eschol grapes
beforehand, and that you shall have nothing
but prickly pear and crab apple. You are just
as good now under the cloud as you We're when
you were accustomed to rise in the morning
to pray and sing "Halclujah, It's DONE
Edward Payson, sometimes so far uI
on the mount that it seemed as if the
centrpetal force of earth could no longer
void him, sometimes through q physical dis
order was so far down that it seemed as if the
neither world would clutch him. Glorious
William Cowper was as good as good could
be, and will be loved in the Christian church
as long as it sings his hymn beginning
There is a fountain filled with blood, :" and
his hymn beginning: "Oh, for closer walk
with God" and his hymn beginning: "What
beginning: God moves in mysterious
way" Yet 50 was he overcome of melan
choly, or black bile that it was only through
the mistake Of the cab driver, who took him
to wrong place, instead of the river bank,
that he did not commit suicide
H.. o4oI I,-
the physical state! What a great oppor-
tunity this gives the Christian physician, for
he can feel at the same time both the pulse of
the body and the pulse of the soul, and he
can administer to both at once, and if medi-
cine is needed he can give that, and if spirit
ual counsel is needed he can give that--an
earthly and divine prescription at the same
time-and call not only the apothecary of
earth, but the pharmacy of heaven. All,
tins is the kind Of doctor l want at my bel
side when l get sick. one that can not only
pour out the right number of drops, but one
who can also pray. That is the kind Of doc,
tor have had in my house when sickness OF
death came. do not want any of your prof
llgate or athe!stic doctors around my loved
ones when the balances of life are trem
bling. A doctor who has gone through the
medical college, and in dssecting room
has traversed the wonders of the human
mechanism, and found no God in any of the
labyrinths, is fool, and cannot doctor me OF
mine But, oh, the Christian doctors! What
comfort they have been in many of oui
households. And they ought to have warn
place in our prayers, as well as praise on our
tongues. Dear old Dr. Skillman, My father:
doctor, my mothers doctor, in the village
home. He carried all the condolences Of
all the families fourteen miles around
We all felt better as soon as we saw him en-
ter the house. HIS face pronounced beati
tude before he said a word. He welcomed
all of us children into life, and he closed tn,
old peoples eyes when they entered the last
sumber. l think / know what Christ sale
to him when the old doctor got through hi.
work. l think he was greeted with til,
words: Come in, doctor. | was sick anc
We visited me-" l bless God that the number
of Christian physicians is multiplying, anC
some of the students of the medical colleges
are here to-day. And hail you, and bles,
you, and | ordain you, to the ten
der, beautiful, heaven descended worl
of Christian physician, and wher
you take your diploma from the
Long Island Medical College to look after
the perishable body, be sure also to get di
ploma from the skies to look after the imper
ishab.e soul. Let all Christian physicians